As the weekend approaches, so does my next tri, the Muncie Endurathon Half Iron Distance Triathlon in Muncie, IN. This race has snuck up on me a little since it comes only 3 weeks after my last short course races, and although it is nearly two months before IM Louisville, the ominous presence of the full Ironman has overshadowed it. It is the last race prior to the Ironman as well, so no longer will I be able to distract myself from the end goal of the season with these intermediate hurdles. After Saturday afternoon, I will be staring the Iron Monster straight in the face.
All melodrama aside, I still do have aggressive goals this weekend and am in a recovery cycle of my overall season schedule, so should come into the race relatively rested, although slightly beaten up. This past weekend at the premature end of a long training ride I took a tame spill by most standards (skidded out on a gravel patch at low speed), but it was my first wreck that I can remember and has left its mark with minor soreness and bruising along with a small (about 2 inch diameter) patch of road rash on my right hip. Luckily no damage was done to my BSM team kit. I was able to continue riding (the bike appears fine), but was only about 10 miles shy of the 90 I planned for the day and probably dropped my remaining motivation on the road to melt in the hot sun, so I called it quits a little early.
Anyways, back to the task at hand, the race this weekend. I am hoping to PR on the half-iron distance, but it will take some work since I won’t have the strong current to push me through the swim in record time as was the case in Augusta last year. I’d like to break 4:40 for the distance, and here’s how I see it breaking down…
• Swim: 31 minutes (aggressive, and will depend on if wetsuits are legal)
• T1: 3 minutes, hopefully less
• Bike: 2h30minutes (22.4mph avg…breaking the 2:30 barrier is kind of a sub-goal in itself)
• T2: 2 minutes, again hopefully less
• Run: 1h34minutes (~7:10 / mile pace)
I feel like if I can hit close to these splits, particularly bike and run, I should be about where I would like to heading into the final push before Ironman taper.
Speaking of the final push, I made a list last week of the remaining key workouts to be completed before the taper. There’s a lot to be done in a month, but I think the speed is where it needs to be; now I need to finalize the long workout nutrition and get in some of the longest training days to finalize my pacing strategy. I came up with 12 remaining key workouts, one of which I completed with my crash on Sunday…the remaining 11 are as follows with approximate timing.
• 7/10 – Muncie Half Ironman
• 7/13 – 100+ mile bike ride (no time for post-race recovery)
• 7/17 – 18.5+ mile run
• 7/18 – IM course scouting ride in Louisville (w/ Kelley and Dad, distance TBD)
• 7/20 – 100+ mile bike ride w/ short t-run
• 7/24 – 20+ mile run
• 7/27 – 100+ mile bike ride w/ short t-run
• 7/28 – 4000m steady-state swim
• 8/3 – 100+ mile bike ride w/ 30+ minute t-run
• 8/7 – 20+ mile run
• 8/8 – 4000m steady-state swim
All these are long aerobic efforts for the most part (disregarding the race this weekend). The taper begins August 9th with a 3 week gradual step down in volume injected with some speed work.
The steps are in place…now to follow the path
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